Terrapin Station

 

- Rebirth, Eric Tamm

As I continue to pray for healing and rebirth in the newly-living Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, I point your attention to this great post at Katie Sherrod's place: 

Litany for Healing Homophobia.  Written by the Rev'd Joseph A. Harmon, Pastor, Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City, NJ.  Permission freely granted for liturgical use, with attribution. [I did not take the time to seek permission so I am just pointing you to Katie's place, where she did so.]

Thank you, Barack

Have you read Barack's speech from this morning?  Great stuff. 

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashos.htm

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Wednesday night Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke at UNT in the inaugural EncoUNTers international lecture.  I have been listening to her book, Infidel, on CD for the last several days (still haven't finished).  It is phenomenal. 

She is a well-known critic of Islam and she is in great danger.  We were not permitted to publicize her appearance here by any electronic media (including e-mail or blog) or in newspapers due to the security issues, but it was a packed house. 

She is a Somalian woman raised in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Ethiopia.  She fled to Europe to escape an arranged marriage, became a Dutch citizen and then a member of the Dutch Parliament, and eventually worked with filmmaker Theo van Gogh on a movie about domestic violence against Muslim women.  Due to his role in producing this film, in 2004 Van Gogh was murdered in the street as he rode his bicycle home, and a note was left pinned to his chest threatening Ali's life.   

The security was very tight but there were no real problems.  You can read a newspaper article about the talk here. 

I urge you all to read this book.  It's causing me to think about many, many things in ways I have not before, and while I read a lot, I don't usually get that from a book.  This woman is a true hero. 

I sing the Body electric

I sing the Body electric;

The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;

They will not let me off til I go with them, respond to them,

And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul. 

Walt Whitman, 1900

This body work I've been doing for the last couple of years is truly amazing.  It's part talk therapy, part movement work, and part teaching my body to feel its feelings and not intellectualize every single thing.  Tough for a booky girl like me. 

The result so far is a lot of old baggage shed, and that I have some energetic hot spots in my body core that twinge when I am angry, upset, frightened, etc.  So then I have to stop and say, "What's that about?"  The 12-steppers call it "sitting with the feelings," instead of running off to medicate them with your drug of choice...whether that be alcohol, narcotics, or even if it be food, TV, exercise.  Whatever you use not to think, not to feel. 

The last few days have been very talky for my body.  I have a constant bad feeling.  It has to do with an injustice to someone I care about very much, perpetrated by an organization I care about very much. 

I bring it up because I saw part of an old movie on TV this morning that got me thinking.  Powder was released in 1995 with the tagline, "Pure energy has a name."  The basic theme of the movie is that we are all part of everything, and all connected to each other.  No matter what you call that, or how you explain it, I believe in that.  We are called to carry each others' pain and lift up each others' joy. 

The question is, what else are we called to do?  What can we do?  What is possible to redress injustice, and how are we called to effect change?  Many of my friends at the RevGals Preacher Party are considering justice today, in light of the Isaiah passage and some with reference to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is celebrated January 21. 

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Isaiah 42

Sure wish I could get to a beach today.  I'll be waiting and listening with my favorite coastland in mind. 

Seven Straight Nights

Are you familiar with the Seven Straight Nights For Equal Rights Campaign?

It is "a coordinated campaign of evening events that will sweep across major American cities during the week of October 7 - 13, 2007. In each participating state, straight citizens will collectively and publicly demonstrate their support for gay family, friends, and neighbors, and urge political leaders at all levels to reflect that support in public policy." (from the website).

So far my state only has 2 cities listed, and they are not mine.  I'm going to see if I can change that.